


From The Space Between

by OmissionSoul



Category: South Park
Genre: Action, Blood and Gore, Gore, Horror, M/M, Monsters, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmissionSoul/pseuds/OmissionSoul
Summary: Craig reluctantly agrees to dress up for Halloween this year, not expecting much from it. However, he notices something strange when passing through the woods.
Relationships: Kenny McCormick/Craig Tucker
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be for Halloween, but it took longer than I thought to complete. Welp, better late than never I guess lol. Anyways, here you all go, hope you enjoy it!

A splash rings out, as a pair of rubber boots land in a puddle, and laughter erupts from the small boy they belonged to. A makeshift costume of that of an astronaut, dons his tiny frame, as this night was one of a very particular holiday. The boy crawls up a mini play structure that's set up in a immaculate backyard. Just as the boy goes to jump from the top of the structure, down to the puddle, something catches his eye by the yard's far end bushes. It's black, and only pokes out from the bushes for a moment before darting back in. The boy stares for a few seconds, before turning his attention back to what he was doing, jumping from the play structure and landing in the puddle once again.

As soon as the splash rings out, the bushes rustle again. The boy looks back at them, and spots the black thing from before poke out once more. To the young boy, it looked like that of a cat tail. It wiggles a few times, and the boy's curiosity grows at it. Soon the boy is walking towards it, across the wet yard from where the sky's earlier showers in the day landed on. As the boy nears, the black tail shoots back into the bushes. The boy stops in front of them and tilts his head to the side.

"Kitty?" the boy asks.

The bushes rustle and the boy watches for a few seconds, before crouching down and reaching a hand into them, but he makes no contact with anything and removes it shortly after. The bushes rustle once more, and this time when he does spot the black tail shoot between the small leaves, he goes to grab it, but it darts back in before he can.

The boy quickly sticks his arm in after it, and something brushes against his hand. He tries to grab it, but gets nothing. So he uses his other hand to help move the bushes out of the way with, and try and look for the black feline, but is only met with the dark.

"Kitty?" the boy repeats.

Something shifts in the dark and the boy gives intent focus at it. Silence passes, in what could seem like hours, until very faintly he spots it, the tail, and in one quick movement he grabs it. Then, from the darkness, two purple catlike eyes appear.

" _Craig!_ " A high pitched voice screeches.

The scene quickly changes and distorts into a blur of bright blinding light.

"Craig!"

The voice calls again, this time not as high pitched. A pair of yellow-amber eyes open to sunlight assaulting them, as the traces of the name echo.

"Craig, get up! You're going to be late for school!" a woman's voice says.

Craig lets out a groan as he sits up from his bed.

"I'm up," he replies groggy.

"Good, then get ready," the woman says, as she walks away from drawn open curtains.

"Thanks for letting the sun assault my eyes, mom," Craig mutters sarcastically to himself, as the door to his room closes and he's left alone.

After he gets up and changed, he heads downstairs and is greeted with the sight of his younger sister wearing the costume of a witch.

"Huh, fitting," Craig monotones, looking her over.

"At least I have a costume, unlike you, 'mister boring'," she replies and flips him off with an eye roll.

"Tricia!" their mother says, voice stern as she walks into the living room.

"He started it!" Tricia exclaims and Craig snorts in response.

"I don't care who started what. Just hurry and eat something, so I can drive you both to school!" the mother urges and heads upstairs to get something.

"Whatever," Craig murmurs, "I'm too old for costumes anyways," he adds as he heads into the kitchen.

The morning is rushed, and Craig nearly chokes on some toast he had eaten from trying to swallow it down as fast as possible, at being told to get a move on. When he gets dropped off at his high school, he gives a half-hearted farewell wave to his mother, before anyone can spot him, and heads into the building.

Over half of the school's students are dressed up in various costumes, but Craig isn't surprised by all the different; and somewhat creative outfits, that people wore. Nor the spooky themed decorations that adorned the halls and classrooms.

It was after all, Halloween.

The school day comes and goes, just like any other for Craig, aside from one of his friends, Clyde, constantly complaining to him for lacking the 'Halloween spirit' and not dressing up. He had been complaining to him for so much throughout the day, that Craig reluctantly agreed to go with him and his other friends trick-or-treating, if it would shut him up. Despite the fact that they were all way to old to be doing that sort of stuff now.

And that's how he now found himself, here, in a park, with the sun setting and forced to wear some weird hybrid costume of a zombie mask, a blue NASA letterman jacket, blue converse and an old pair of worn out looking black jeans with a hole over the left knee and a couple of of small tears over the right thigh. Or as Clyde liked called it, 'a zombie spaceman costume'. But Craig just thought he looked stupid in it.

And so, Craig waits with Clyde at a picnic table for the rest of his friend group to arrive, so that he could get this whole thing over with.

"Jeez, what is taking them so long? Don't they know that there's candy to be had?!" Clyde shouts out muffled behind his cheap werewolf mask.

"Relax, I'm sure they'll be here soon," Craig says, lifting up his own mask to rest it over the hat on his head. The plastic of it made it difficult to breathe and focus on his current phone game.

"They better, otherwise we're going on ahead without them! I need my free candy sugar fix!" Clyde huffs.

"Mhmm," Craig replies, still keeping his eyes on his phone. When it makes a little tune from him dying in it, he puts it away and stands. "I need to take a leak. Be back soon."

"You better!" Clyde shouts after him as he leaves.

Craig walks along a small trail, connected to the nearby woods of the park and makes his way to a public restroom. Once he finishes up, he makes his way back, or at least he would be, if something strange didn't catch his attention. In the distance, between all the trees and bushes, something glints. Fading in and out from them. Curious by what it could be, and not in a rush to head back, he decides to investigate it.

As he nears its source, he comes across two boulders resting side by side, as if they were giant pillars.

"Have these always been here?" Craig wonders aloud.

The glinting had faded as he walked towards it, but he was certain it was here. Part of him thinks to leave, but another part is fascinated by the bizarre, (natural?) structure of the big rocks. After a while, once he's satisfied with examining them, he gets ready to leave. The glint however, catches his eye again and he quickly looks back. At first he's not sure what it is that he's seeing, it was almost as if a patch of the very world before him was missing, or taken out of place, and there was now some strange invisible tape that would catch light or something, keeping the land together.

Craig, almost by compulsion to do so, reaches up a curious hand and touches it. His eyes widen when one of his fingers disappears and he quickly pulls his hand away. When he looks at it, all of his fingers are still there however. Confused by it, and before having the chance to process anything more, the small glint suddenly grows, stretching into a long fracture against reality itself. White light shines bright around its edges, as if burning reality and a pull starts. It was as if gravity no longer exists on his world, as he is pulled into another one by this bizarre tear. He attempts to grab onto a nearby branch, but his grip slips and he's sent flying into it.

There's a bright light that fills his eyes, then colors coming and going, all at once until a light so bright hurts his eyes that he must shut them. Then everything is dark, too dark for just eyes being shut. And when he opens them, he's lying face down in the pitch black. He sits up slow with a groan, and fishes out his phone from his pocket, turning on the light. It illuminates the ground, but something is off about it.

The grass hadn't always been a dark purple, had it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drew a pic of Craig from this story!
> 
> Expect some more interesting things on the way.~


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter update! Hope you guys enjoy it!

He guides the light around and it falls onto a tree, but again, something was off about it. He shines his light to another one, than another. The trees seemed to have various colors of dark blues or purples, with green marking streaks running up along them, and some of them with swirls in their continuous trails up the bark of their trunks.

As the light continues up, he also notes that the leaves are a maroon color, all of them. He stands, checking his soundings more, and recollecting his thoughts. Wherever he was, it wasn't the woods that he was in before. He tries to pinch himself, thinking that maybe it's just a vivid dream, but the sharp wince he gets from it says otherwise.

The sound of something rustling nearby catches his attention, and he aims the light in it's direction. He just catches the end of something quickly scuttling across the ground in a quick blur, and hiding in the dense leaves of the also maroon colored bushes. A snap goes off somewhere else around him, and he tries to find from where exactly. Then it's silent again, almost eerily so, and he thinks it best to move away from his current location. But just as he decides to take a step, the sound of several snaps and bushes moving draw his attention, as something lunges at him from the side. It just barely misses him, as he manages to jump out of its way at the last second. It lands on the ground behind him, and he turns the light to it to get a proper look.

The first thing his eyes focus on, are the dozens of legs with small thin hairs, like that of an insect, all moving in rapid speed across the ground before him. His eyes continue to follow the light as it travels up a long shell of some sort, winding and twirling until the light finds the end of it, and reflects off of three round, all red, eyes. There are four sharp pincers that rested under the eyes, with a mouth of spiraling teeth that trailed all along its insides between the clacking of the pincers.

Craig would scream, if he wasn't so consumed by fear at the moment from what his eyes were currently seeing. There is a sound made though, but it's not made by Craig, it's made from the thing flinging its head back in a high clicking screech, from the light and thrashing its tail end behind it. Craig takes the chance to run then.

The thing stops thrashing about once the bright light is gone from its eyes and takes pursuit after him. Craig weaves and ducks under the oncoming low branches in his path. And chances a look back to see how far it is, but in that split moment, his foot catches on a root, and he finds himself now tumbling down a steep. He groans as he gets up and quickly takes off running again to the sound of twigs snapping and bushes shaking. His light falls onto a parting, separating the side he's on, from the other by some feet or so. But he doesn't slow, and instead runs faster towards it.

It was either the gap or the thing behind him. And he was willing to take his chances.

With as strong of a push as he can muster, he leaps through the air. There's a small moment where he fears he might not make it, but he lands on the other side with a roll across the ground. When he glances back, the thing chasing him is now stopped on the other side, letting out more high clicking screeches. He gets back up and keeps going, despite being where it seemed like the thing couldn't reach him, he did not want to be within the same area as the thing for longer than necessary.

"Where the fuck am I?" Craig pants, as he stops to catch his breath after making sure that he could no longer hear that thing anymore.

When his breathing returns to normal again he checks his phone for reception, but there is none, and he frowns when spotting the battery at half life. Once he's calmed down enough, he continues walking through the foreign landscape, hoping to find anything that could lead him out of here.

He walks for quite some time, until deciding to rest for a bit again. He comes across a fallen log and takes a seat on it, then fishes out his phone and examines it again.

"Still nothing..." he murmurs to himself.

A chill runs through him, the small form of goose bumps spread across his skin at the feel of unseen eyes on him. A bush rustles and he stands, the urge to keep away from whatever it is telling him to do so. The memory of what happened last time plays back, and he walks away from where he thought the sound came from. But as he tries to navigate his way through the dark woods, the bushes continue to occasionally rustle at a distance from behind him. This place was so strange, and by what he came across so far, dangerous as well.

The irony of all this, was that if he didn't let his curiosity rule him for that short frame of time on his way back from the restroom, he wouldn't even be here right now. If he hadn't checked out that weird glinting light, he'd be back at the park waiting with Clyde in their dumb costumes for the rest of his friends to arrive by now. And not in these creepy woods, because he got sucked through some weird ass hole in the middle of the park woods and ended up wherever the fuck it was that he was in now, with some weird ass thing following him.

A slow red glow spreads over the treetops and Craig stops to look, only just now noticing that the trees around him were tall, much taller than the ones he had been around before. He also notices that the red glow isn't coming off of the trees, but is hitting them from somewhere. The faint red outlines of clouds start to appear in the now visible sky, but he still isn't sure what is causing it. There's too many trees and bushes obscuring where it's source is from.

A small growl of some sort draws his attention back to his current situation.

He tries to aim the light at the source as another growl is heard, but finds nothing. Unease grows as he turns to head off, two orbs glint and catch his eye as the light passes by them. There's a beat that freezes in Craig's chest and he shines the light back over to it, but is met with nothing.

When he starts to walk again, he's pretty sure that he can hear the faint sound of something mimicking to match his own steps. His speed picks up at it, slow at first, until he ends up in a sprint. As soon as he does, heavy steps move in unison with his, overlapping them.

He gets so concerned with what's behind him, that he almost doesn't stop in time as he reaches the edge of a cliff in a small clearing, only being able to see it because of the faint outlines of red light spreading across the landscape. It's in this new clearing that the source of the red light is made known, as it rises over the horizon. A moon.

Craig turns around to the sound of not a growl, but a deep snort. There's nothing but darkness behind though, and tries to shine his light through it, but only now realizes that it's dead, having died while he was preoccupied with looking over the landscape. His muscles tense as the outline of something on all fours makes its way towards him. He backs up as far to the edge as he can go, but there's no escape for him this time, he was trapped. The thing walks closer and the red light rises higher over the horizon, spreading its light to a more eye level surface now.

The thing walks out from the shadows and into the light, revealing its true form. Craig's eyes widen, the thing looked like what he could only describe as a wolf with a weird merge of a boar's head, long tusks, and a tail of that similar to a scorpion, but with fur and a pointed end. It lets out a low growl as it approaches him and its tail gets ready to strike. The thought of having it pierce through his chest, makes him panic. He tries to look for anything he can to defend himself with, but finds nothing, nothing except for his now dead phone in his hand.

It probably wasn't going to help much, but he hurls it as hard as he can at the thing as a distraction and tries to run around it. The thing flicks it away with its tail and lets out loud snarl, quickly turning to Craig. It pounces on him with its heavy weight in one swift movement, and pins him to the ground. Craig struggles to breath underneath its paws now resting on his chest, as its nails dig into his shirt.

Its mouth opens, and two layers of sharp jagged teeth present them self to Craig. Hot breath and a thin trail of saliva land next to his ear as he stares down its throat. The smell of its mouth is vile, like that of rotting flesh, so strong that it makes him want to gag. Its tail raises over its head and aims directly for Craig's own. He knew there was no escaping, and that thing was about to pierce his skull and kill him no matter what he tried. But he hoped that if there was any chance that this was just a bad nightmare, he wished for anything, _anything_ , to wake him up before his head turned in to a shish kabob.

The tail twitches as if ready to strike and Craig shuts his eyes, bracing for his end. But the weight on top of him suddenly disappears with the sound of something being hit. Craig anxiously opens an eye for as to why, and nothing is there. He opens both and quickly scans the area as he sits up. There's a snarl as Craig's eyes fall onto the thing now currently in the air. He's so focused on the it being in the air, that he doesn't notice the long, thick, black shadow wrapped around its torso at first. But as it's lifted higher, his eyes follow the shadow down to another figure now standing below it.

The features of the new figure are hard to make out from the red light that shone brilliantly behind it. The figure is tall, much taller than Craig knew he himself was. It's form lean, like a humanoid shape. But the arms and legs are anything but that, seeming to have fur on them. The fingers are long, unnaturally so, with the shape of claws at the ends of them. The legs looked similar to an animal's, or some sort of beast's. And its head, the most human looking part on it, has long hair and what seemed like two sharp horns sticking out from the top of it. However, the thing that stood out the most to him, were the four very long and thick shadows connecting to its back. From the silhouette, they looked like what Craig could only describe as four tentacles.

One of the tentacles moves up to the creature being held by another tentacle, and wraps itself around the thing. The thing lets out a loud snarl and struggles to break free, thrashing about in all of which ways. The tentacles wrap tighter around the thing, and in one, swift, horrifying, movement tear the thing in half. Its bones snap and crackle apart in a mixture of sopping flesh and muscle tissue. Its innards falling to the ground in heavy splashes, drenching the soil beneath it with its new moistened entrails. The grotesque sounds of it, send a cold chill down Craig's spine.

Silence seems like it lasts forever, as Craig sits there in fear. The tentacles eventually drop, the two now emptied out halves, and lower down. At first, the figure doesn't move either and Craig is unsure of what to do. When he gathers enough courage to, he tries to stand, pushing through the shakiness of his legs, still unable to comprehending everything.

As soon as he stands all the way, the figure's head tilts slightly and a pair of purple eyes suddenly appear on its face. Their shape wasn't normal though, they were big, much bigger than a human's. If anything they looked closer to cat eyes. Their gaze piercing right through his very being, causing the hair on his body to stand on end. The figure takes a step towards him, and as if a shock rings through him, his legs move to their own accord and he takes off running.

_Danger_ , was the only word that echoed in his head.

That thing may have torn the other creature in half, but that didn't mean he was safe, it just meant that another more stronger and dangerous thing took its place. As Craig runs through the woods, the red light casts shadows across the ground as its moon rises higher into the sky. Tricks of the shadows begin to play at the corner of his eyes, and he swore that thing was following him in the them. Small glimpses of its tentacles emerging from the shadows and purple flicks kept catching his eye.

No matter how much his legs or lungs began to burn he did not slow, he needed to keep going, to run away so he wouldn't end up torn in half too. But his legs do eventually give way after running for so long, and he falls in over himself. He turns his head to the side and pants heavily trying to catch his breath. Head light, and stars dancing around the edges of his vision, he looks around and thinks that maybe he finally got away. But he catches sight of something walking between the trees shadows, and tries to stand back up again.

Adrenaline spikes through him in overdrive as he gets up. But he only makes it a few feet before he stumbles and falls down a hole hidden by shadows and bushes. He lands onto his back, before his head makes contact with the ground. His vision starts to darken then and the last thing he sees is the figure standing at the top of the hole, with its piercing eyes, before everything fades to black.

_**...** _

A young Craig plays a top a small play structure wearing a makeshift astronaut costume. He jumps from the top of it and lands with a giggle. He climbs back up and just as he goes to do it again, something catches his eye, only for a moment, by a bush. But he jumps again, landing in the puddle once more. His attention is drawn back to the bush with a rustle. And then he's walking towards it, curious. Next he's crouching down in front of it and reaching a hand into it, thinking it's a cat he's in search for. And when he finds something, thinking it's a tail, he quickly grabs it, and a pair of purple catlike eyes appear in the dark.

"Craig" a voice calls and he turns his head to look behind himself. "Craig, it's supper time! Come inside sweetie!"

It was his mother standing by the backdoor calling him, her hand resting on a very pregnant belly. Craig gives a short nod before turning back around to the bush. But the eyes are gone, along with the strange tail from his hand. He stares for a couple more seconds before standing and taking out a small candy from his costume pocket and unwrapping it. He sets the candy down in front of the bush, resting it on its wrapper, before he heads off into the house.

After he finishes eating and heads off to bed, he sleeps for a while before waking up needing to pee. After he comes back and gets ready to sleep again, his gaze travels out his window and spots the small wrapper in front of the bush. Curious, he grabs a pair of binoculars and looks at it again with them. It was empty. He wonders if the cat ate it and if it was gone now, and just as that thought enters his mind, the strange tail from before pokes out again. This time however, it was in another spot from within the bushes.

Craig puts the binoculars down and grabs some candy from one of his bags and heads downstairs. He carefully opens the back sliding door and heads outside in his pajamas. He walks across the yard barefoot and stands in front of the spot that he saw the movement at. He then unwraps one of the candies, crouches down, and places it like he had before in front of the bush.

"Kitty hungry?" Craig asks.

Somewhere in his very young child mind, this made sense to him. To feed a cat candy, because who doesn't like candy? Craig stays where he is, starting into the bushes for anything. And he wonders if he may have scared it off. But slowly, the strange tail pokes out from the bottom of the bush and pats at the ground, as if sniffing its way over to the candy. As soon as it finds the candy, it wraps around it and pulls it into the bush. Craig then places down another one and another, making a small trail leading away from the bushes. He wanted to see what the cat looked like and if he could pet it or not.

The tail stretches further and further out, until what is being hidden by the bushes slowly crawls out. And it was most certainly not a cat.

The figure of what appeared like a young male, crawls out from them. The arms and legs are covered in black fur, along with the bottom half of the torso. The hands have some human resemblance to them, while the feet were much more animal-like in some semblance, but both of them have long black nails, like that of claws, attached to the ends of them. Short blond hair that is so pale, it looks almost white rests on the head, along with two small black pointy horns poking out from beneath it. While the face has two cat shaped eyes, with purple irises and black pupils. There's two slits for a nose like a snake, no mouth and a strange line of some sort resting on the forehead between the eyes. Then there's the skin that is so pale, almost like snow, for the face and upper torso;that lacked any features such as a navel or nipples. And last, there's the tail, which wasn't really a tail at all, but in fact one of four tentacles coming from the young male figure's back.

"Who awr you?" Craig asks in awe, "Awr you lost?"

The strange boy looks up at Craig as he reaches the end of the candy trail. Big purple eyes now stare back at him. Although, as Craig looked more closely at them, the pupils were also slits like cats as well, and they had a thin blue ring lining around the outside of them.

"Costuwme?" Craig asks and the other cocks his head.

Craig goes to touch one of the tentacles, and at first it moves away, before slowly moving forward and touching the palm of his hand. The strange boy stands then, and ends up being a bit taller than Craig when doing so. He leans forward, sniffing him, before all the tentacles start to mimic the motion as well. One of them finds the candies in his hand and takes one out of it, bringing it to his eyes to examine.

"You like candy?" Craig asks as the strange boy continues to examine it. Craig unwraps one and hands it to him. "Hwere."

The other looks at it in his hand, sniffing it, before a tentacle reaches for it and the end of it opens up, like a bunch of small feelers of some kind. They wrap around the small candy, and slide it inside, before they close up again. Then he watches as Craig unwraps another one and mimics it with his tentacles.

"Mmm!" Craig lets out muffled, as he eats it and smiles.

The strange boy tilts his head at that, and Craig can't help but think of a cat as he does it. So he reaches up a hand and pets his head. The boy continues to stare for a while, before slowly closing his eyes to the feel of it and Craig lets out a small giggle at it.

A cold gust of wind passes by and Craig shivers, while the other seems completely unbothered by it.

"Awren't you cowld?" Craig asks, but the other only tilts his head again. Craig reaches out a hand and grabs the other one's furred hand, which seemed to have some grip like texture underneath it. "Cwome on."

The other looks between their hands and Craig's face, before taking a step and following Craig's lead. When they step inside the kitchen, where the backdoor connects too, a small meow is heard, as his family's black cat jumps up onto the counter. It doesn't hang around long though as its eyes fall on the boy and it hisses, before taking off. Craig lets out a small laugh, before closing the door and leading the other quietly through the house and up to his room. He lets go of his hand as he shuts the door and walks over to his dresser. When he doesn't find what he's looking for there, he walks over to his closet and goes through it. He pulls out a small orange parka after some time and holds it out to the other.

"Hwere, you can havf dis," Craig says.

The boy just sniffs at it though, before picking it up with his tentacles and sniffing it some more.

"You put it on," Craig tells him.

Then proceeds to demonstrate by putting on another coat he has in his closet. It was a blue and black mix of colors, and newer than the one he gave to the other.

The boy looks at the coat again and mimics what Craig does. However, he ends up tearing four holes in the back of it, as his tentacles struggle to break free from the fabric's confines. At first Craig stares surprised, but then giggles some more as he takes his coat off. The other goes to do the same, but Craig stops him and shakes his head.

"You keep," he smiles. The other stops and watches as Craig goes and sits on his bed. "Do you havf a name?" Craig asks as the other starts to look around the room. "If not, I can pick one."

As the other continues to look around the room, Craig tries to come up with a name. The boy finds a cage in the corner of the room, housing a small creature curled up in a hut.

"Das strwipe!" Craig says happily as the other looks at it curious. "He's my pet!" The rodent lets out a small wheek as one of the boy's tentacles taps the cages. "Don't scware him kitty!"

Part of Craig was still compelled to call him that because of his eyes, even though he knew he wasn't one really.

"Hmmm... kitty," Craig murmurs.

He grabs a pen and paper and starts to write something on it, placing it on top of the nightstand next to his bed. As he does, the other walks over to him curious still.

"Kitty!" Craig smiles and holds up the paper. The word 'KITTY' was written in all capital letters across it. "Dat can be your name!"

The boy looks at the pen and paper and takes them both from Craig's hands. Craig smiles as the other tilts his head, but it quickly changes to surprise as the other, once again, mimics Craig by placing the paper down on the small nightstand and scribbling on the it as well.

"Kitty no!" Craig exclaims and yanks the paper away.

Craig lets out a sigh as he examines the now butchered name. Most of the letters looked like they could be completely different ones now. The 'K' and 'Y' were still intact, but the 'I' had a line going through the center of it, that looked more like an 'E' now and the two 'T's had dragged down lines from the tops of them that looked more like lowercase 'n's instead.

"Ken...ny?" Craig reads the new formed word aloud and the other leans forward. "Kenny?" Craig repeats, "Do you like it?" the boy titles his head and Craig smiles and pets him. The boy's eyes close again and he leans into the head rub more. "I'll call you Kenny frwom now on den." Craig giggles.

_**...** _

The scene starts to fade and everything becomes bathed in darkness, before a red light takes its place. Then a dull throb rings at the back of Craig's head as he starts to wake and slowly sit up.

It takes him a few seconds to gather his surroundings and remember just where he is, but once he does, the slow creep of panic starts to rise in him. The first thing of note, is that Craig was no longer in a hole anymore, even though he was pretty sure that he fell down one before passing out. The second thing, is how much higher the moon is in the sky now. It was well risen over the treetops, although the shadows were still pretty dense around him. Something moves in one of them and Craig tenses, he wasn't sure if whether he could do anymore running or not right now, everything still felt dizzy from the throbbing in his head.

His heart stops as a black animal like foot steps out from the shadows. Another follows it out, and the dark outlines of two tentacles emerge from the shadows behind them. Craig's gaze guides up to the figure's face as it walks more into the light, and is greeted with two familiar cat shaped eyes again. At first he fears for the worst, but as the full figure steps into the light, an image plays back in his mind. The figure stops moving then as shock spreads across Craig's face from it.

"K...Kenny?"

The word comes out unsure and a bit hesitant from Craig's mouth, because everything was still so surreal feeling to him.

_You remember me..._

The sudden deep echoing voice makes Craig jump, not been expecting to have heard one in response at all.

"Wha—where did—was that you?!" Craig asks confused.

_Yes._

Craig's mouth gaps, his eyes widen and he points at him.

"But—you don't have a mouth! So how are you—"

_Through mind._

"Mind?" Craig repeats.

_Yes. I can communicate through mind. Although that was not always the case before._

Craig pauses to think, his mind tries to process just what exactly was happening right now.

_I'm what humans call, telepathic._

He takes a step towards Craig, causing him to tense in response.

_Do not be afraid, Craig, I won't harm you._

Craig remains tense however, but stays where he is as the figure, Kenny, approaches him. When he stands a few feet away in front of him, Craig suddenly feels so small compared to his towering height.

_Are you able to move?_

"...I think so." Craig replies.

_Good, because it would not be ideal to stay here for too much longer._

Craig gives a confused look, before he recalls how he was attacked twice already since being in these woods.

_3 times._

"Huh?" Craig says confused.

_You were attacked once more while unconscious. So 3 times in all._

"Oh," Craig murmurs, before realizing what he just said. "Wait—did you just read my mind?! Also—how am I still okay if I was attacked?!"

_Yes, as I said, telepathic. And you're unharmed because I made sure of it._

Craig at first is glad that Kenny had helped him while unconscious, then suddenly feels very uncomfortable at the thought of having his mind being read by some other worldly being. Because he wasn't sure what thoughts he himself would think of most of the time.

_Do not worry about your thoughts. For now we should move._

Before Craig can respond, one of Kenny's tentacles wraps itself around his waist and picks him up, placing him onto his feet.

"I-I can stand on my own! You don't need to help me!"

Craig tries to push the tentacle away. It was if a tight tense muscle was wrapped around him and no matter how hard he pushes at it, it won't budge. When he starts to fear being squeezed to death by it, like a tube of toothpaste having its insides squeezed out, or being torn apart like with what happened to that monster from before, Kenny lets go of him.

_Sorry._

"It's fine..." Craig mumbles, calming down. "Where am I anyways?" he adds changing the topic as they start to walk.

_This is what would best be described as a world of monsters._

"World of monsters?" Craig repeats.

_Yes. It is a world far beyond your own._

"What do you mean?"

_This world, like your own, exists in its own pocket of space, like a dimension. Along with many others._

"Others?"

_Yes. Others. Your world is not the only one to exist, there are many others far beyond its reach, yet so close at the same time._

"Wait, what exactly do you mean?"

_There's a space in between them all, that both separates and connects them. Sometimes on certain points or times of each world, a weak point appears and shows the thinning of the space between lessening. A tear._

The last bit makes Craig recall what he saw before being carried away to the place he was currently in now.

_Usually you would end up in the space between and could go back as soon as you crossed over, but it seems as though you were carried right through in to this one. Our two worlds must be closer than usual currently. That or..._

"Or what?"

_Nothing._

Craig gives a curious look to him, before looking forward as they continue their walk.

_It may be fate, that you and I were able to meet again._

"Fate..." Craig repeats. "I used to only think that dream was just a strange recurring one I would get every year around Halloween. Just one that never got completed or always ended either at the bushes or playing on that old structure. I had no idea it was such an old memory..." there's a brief pause, "I don't remember what happened after giving you a name though. Actually—what even is your real name?"

_I never had one._

"Really?"

_Monsters of this world do not have things such as names. Just instinct to kill and survive._

"Oh..."

_But I was happy to have received one when you gave me it._

"You were?"

_Yes._

At that, a faint smile crosses Craig's lips as he recalls the memory again.

_And shortly after you gave me it, you fell asleep and I left, needing to get back to my own world._

"How... how come I never saw you again?"

_I tried to find you, and there were times I thought I did, but it wasn't quite right, the space between our two worlds was to vast and I couldn't ever seem to find the right... you_

"The right me? What do you mean?"

_The eyes were always off..._

"Huh?"

_Like I said before. It must be fate that we met again._

Kenny's gaze is fixed off far elsewhere when Craig glances up at him, as if he were seeing something playback in his mind. His gaze lingers on him until the other glances back, causing him to look away.

_Although I am glad to have met you again, you need to go back before you are trapped here._

"Trapped here?!" Craig exclaims.

_Yes, there is a limit that you must return by before the way closes, and you are trapped here for a full human year. As you already may have guessed, the monster world is no place for a human to be. You would not survive long here._

"Wait—a year?! How long do I have left?" Craig asks, trying to remain calm.

_Until the red moon sets._

"And how long is that?"

_About six hours human time._

"Great." Craig monotones, "This is exactly how I wanted to spend my Halloween."

_I will make sure to help you get back and that nothing bad happens to you._

Craig glances up at him again, Kenny was well over two feet taller than himself, which he thought is quite a feat considering that he himself is six feet tall. But his thoughts shift, and he thinks of how Kenny helped him before, and when he was unconscious also, and as he does another light tug plays at his lips.

"Thanks," Craig says, "uh, by the way... how do you know English anyways?"

_I know many languages._

"How many?"

_Many, upon many._

"Oookay," Craig says still confused. "Well how did you learn so many?"

_All at once, everything came to me and I understood it and its languages._

"I feel like it will just hurt my brain more if I keep on asking you about it. So I'm just going to drop it," Craig sighs and shakes his head. "Anyways, I'm guessing that we're looking for a tear right now, so that I can get back to my world, right?"

_Yes._

"Do you know where to find it?"

_Yes, although you were dropped quite far away from the normal tear location this time of year. Unlike with yours, ours tends to be in the same location each time this year._

"Same location? Wait, so do other worlds like mine usually have it in different spots?"

_Yes, usually._

"Huh..." Craig murmurs, "So there's really no other way out, if we don't make it in time? The way will be gone from that spot until next year?"

_Yes. While there are other tears that can open, the one that connects to your world and has the strongest path to it, is the one for tonight's._

"And... what would happen if I went in to a different tear?"

_You may end up in another world, or the space between may be too great and far. And you may find yourself wandering for the rest of your days in there, or lose yourself to the things hidden in it._

"Oh... like, monsters?"

_Something like that. But I'd say the things in the space between are far worse than any monster in any world._

"Wait—are there are monsters in other worlds?"

_Yes. Some have always existed in them, or are called other names in them. And some... came from this world and never returned._

The influx of all this information sends Craig's head whirling as he tries to process it all. He closes his eyes for a couple seconds to focus and when he opens them again, one of Kenny's tentacles is holding something up to him. It takes him a second to realize that it's his phone, the one that he threw at the monster earlier.

_I was unsure if you wanted this back or not, after tossing it._

"No, I uh... thanks," Craig says.

He takes it and examines it. It surprisingly doesn't have any cracks on the screen, despite how hard he threw it and being flung away by the monster.

_I couldn't find the other face that was on your head however._

"Face?" Craig repeats confused. At first he has no idea what he's talking about, then touches his head as he recalls about the mask that was on it before. He hadn't even noticed that the cheap Halloween mask was now gone, or for that matter, when it even fell off. "Oh, that, it's okay. I don't really need it. It was just a cheap mask anyways." he adds putting his phone away.

The two walk for quite some time, before eventually coming across a drop to a lower land of terrain.

_Down there._

Kenny points to something and Craig follows the extended finger's direction with his gaze. The land looked more of the same, but in the distance something glowed along the horizon line.

_We must head in that direction. But it will get more difficult from this point onwards._

"What do you mean?"

_We are not the only two heading to that tear._

An unease sets in Craig at that, he knew what he meant. More monsters.

"How do we get down?" Craig asks, glancing down over the side of the drop.

_You won't like it._

"Why?" Craig asks looking at him.

_We need to jump._

"Whoa—wait, won't we die from a fall this high?!"

_No, I won't. Which is why you'll need to hold on tight._

"Hold on tight?! To what?!" Craig exclaims, there's a brief pause as he registers what he means, "Isn't there another way down or something?! Like a path?!"

_There is, but it would waste too much time. And you need to get back as soon as you can._

Craig falls silent and looks over the land. There's a cry of some sort in the distance, before he nods his head with a sigh.

"Okay, but I don't know what I'm supposed to hold on to."

The top two of Kenny's tentacles wrap carefully around Craig's waist and pick him up. Faint fear rises in Craig at it, from the sudden helplessness he felt being lifted so easily like he was nothing. He prays to himself that the tentacles around him, don't decide to suddenly go in separate directions and tear him in half.

_I will not harm you._

"I... I know, because if you were going to, you would have done so already." Craig says with an uneasy laugh. "It's just, I'm not used to being picked up like I weigh nothing, and being handled by tentacles that could, you know, tear me apart?"

_They will not harm you. Just think of them as an extension of my arms._

Kenny walks closer to the edge.

_Now hold on._

The tentacles around Craig tighten a bit, causing him to flinch before they raise behind Kenny's head and Craig becomes even more anxious at being even higher now than before, but it doesn't last long, as Kenny jumps from the edge. The rush of wind coming at Craig is so quick that he has to shut his eyes. The tentacles around him shift he thinks, but isn't sure by how fast everything is moving. The sound of branches cracking and breaking rings out as pulls and tugs at his clothes move past them. There's a loud thud, from what he guesses is Kenny landing, but doesn't feel much of a shockwave in the tentacles hold.

When he opens his eyes, he suddenly finds himself very close to Kenny's back now, and wonders if they moved closer to Kenny when he jumped. There's a detail he spots along Kenny's back. Traveling down his spine, that rested between two sets of tentacles sprouting out on either side, was a thin trail of black fur running along it. A part of him has the urge to touch it, but he doesn't.

_You can touch it if you wish to quell your curiosity._

At first Craig is a bit taken aback, but then remembers about how Kenny can read his thoughts.

"Would you stop doing that?" Craig asks annoyed.

_Stop what?_

"Reading my thoughts."

_Unfortunately I can not, much as that may displease you._

"Can you put me down?" Craig sighs.

Kenny does and Craig fixes his hat and clothes. Being back on the ground was nice, and even more so at being able to move around freely again. Once Craig is good to go, they make their way through the new area.

The first thing Craig notes is that the trees in this area are much lower than the tall ones in the last area. As he continues to observe, something rustles nearby causing him to stop along with Kenny. When the sound happens again he takes an unconscious step closer to Kenny.

_We're entering the outer ring now._

"Outer ring?"

_We're within a certain distance from the tear now, so we'll soon start to see many more monsters appear._

Before Craig can say anything, something darts out from the shadows. He doesn't even have time to register what it could be, as one of Kenny's tentacles whips by so fast, it crushes the thing on impact with the ground. The only thing left behind are bits of what look like insect legs and the green insides of whatever purpose they may have served prior, now splattered all over the forest ground.

_Stay close._

Craig does just that.

He keeps as close as he can, while occasionally looking around at any sounds he hears and inching closer to Kenny with each one. However, they luckily, (or unluckily), only run into a very few more amount of monsters until reaching the end of the forest. Once there, they come across the source of the glow Craig had seen in the distance before.

A jungle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is an image I drew of Kenny from this AU.
> 
> Below are a couple amazing artworks that my friends drew based on this AU while I was working on it!<333 
> 
> This one is by: 
> 
> Twitter:[yuu-draws](https://twitter.com/yuudraws)
> 
> Instagram:[yuu-draws](https://www.instagram.com/yuu_draws_/)
> 
> And this one by:[KuroXan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroXan)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long chapter update! 
> 
> Enjoy!

This jungle wasn't like the jungles that Craig was used to seeing images of at home. The tops of the trees and bushes glowed, along with the strange swirl like patterns he had seen before on the trees. The trunks were so dark they almost appeared black, but were in fact a dark navy blue. The colors that glowed were various colors of blues, greens, purples, reds and yellows. Vines hung low in parts and some tree trunks had strange fungi growing on them that glowed as well. Most everything was different here, well everything but the grass really, which was still the same color and only taller now.

Craig's gaze travels up to the sky, which is barely visible in the new dense area. The moon though, he could tell was much past the spot from last he saw it, and he wonders how much time is left because of it.

_2 hours._

"What?" Craig says, being pulled back from thoughts.

_There are 2 hours remaining._

Craig frowns at having his mind read once again, but tries to brush it off.

"So I take it we need to go in there?" he asks, gesturing to the jungle.

_That is correct._

Kenny looks into it and Craig notices the change in his pupils thin as he does so.

"Is something wrong?" Craig asks.

_I should inform you, we're nearing the inner ring. The monsters in there, will be much more dangerous than those you have seen thus far._

"Well, they all seem just plain dangerous to me, so I don't know how much of a change that will be but, okay," Craig says and Kenny looks to him.

_I may need to carry you._

"Why?" Craig asks confused.

_I didn't tell you before, as to not worry you, but monsters can track a human's scent. Especially when there is fear in it. Which is why you will need to stay as close as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to keep you out of harm's way._

Craig's eyes widen in surprise at this news. Would there be even more attacks going in there because of him? And then there was still the fact that he was still a bit hesitant with having to be held by Kenny's tentacles again.

"How much further away are we from the tear?"

_Not much further._

"Alright," Craig sighs, "since it's not to much further... I guess it's okay if you think the best option is to carry me."

_I know it makes you feel unease when I hold you with them, but it really is the best course of action, sorry._

"No, it's fine, just..." Craig trails off as the rest of the sentence, 'why can't you use your arms instead?', plays out in his head.

_Because my arms are far more dangerous than the tentacles on my back._

Craig ignores the thought invasion again and has doubts that his arms are truly worse, but then again, he hadn't seen them in use yet, so who knew?

"Let's get going then."

The bottom two of Kenny's tentacles make their way over to Craig and creep up his legs. The sensation of them slithering up his legs makes him jump and move away.

"Whoa—hey—what are you doing?" Craig asks, standing in a defensive stance.

_Picking you up._

"Yeah, but why do you need to have your tentacles be all..." he says and does a motion with his hand.

_All what?_

"Nevermind..." Craig replies and glances off elsewhere.

There's a brief pause before Kenny gives a slight tilt of the head.

_What is... Hentai?_

"Nevermind!" Craig exclaims, a faint flush spreading on his face. "Just—pick me up so that we can go already!"

There's another brief pause.

_Tentacle p_ _—_

"Can we just get going?!" Craig interrupts, "Or am I going to have to walk there by myself!?"

And truth be told, he would rather die right now, than have Kenny reading these random embarrassing thoughts now entering his mind.

When he takes a step towards the jungle, the top two of Kenny's tentacles wrap around his waist, lift him up and carry him over to his back. The movement of the tentacles wrapping in and around his body as they switch from the top two, to the bottom two, do not help with his current thought process. The constricting and unconstricting of the tentacle muscles around him, moving around his arms and legs, one of which slides dangerously close to the upper part of his inner thighs, before they end up resting around his waist and upper torso.

They hold him close to Kenny's back, so that he now rests between the upper and lower two sets of tentacles along the spine. Unsure of what to do with his hands, he places them on Kenny's shoulders and holds onto them. The fur on his shoulders is coarse and thick, and Craig finds his fingers running through it. It's just the distraction he needs from his thoughts as they shift to thinking of touching the new textures he was now close to, this time giving in to the urge to touch. His fingers play with the tuffs of rough fur between them and one of his hands move towards Kenny's neck and he starts to play with the ends of his hair.

The hair on Kenny's head is also coarse, but not to the same extent as on his arms and shoulders. Craig's fingers start to run through the ends, like a comb and he's mildly surprised that there aren't any knots when he does. He's also surprised that there are no ears under his hair, and instead small slits for where they would be. His gaze shifts to Kenny's horns and he tentatively reaches a hand up to one of them and lightly pokes it, before placing a finger on its surface. He expects it to be a rough texture as well, but it's the opposite of that, its surface is smooth. He runs his fingers up along to the top of it and a finger goes over its tip, which he is pretty sure could prick him if he were to press hard enough.

_When you are finished exploring the various textures of my body, let me know and I'll start heading onwards._

"Oh—yeah, uh, sorry," Craig says sheepishly and places his hands back on Kenny's shoulders.

_I do not mind it. But it would be best for you to hold on, because I will be moving quite fast._

"Got it," Craig mumbles.

Kenny takes a couple steps into the jungle, before his speed suddenly picks up and he's sprinting. The changes is so sudden, that Craig ends up instinctively wrapping his arms around Kenny's neck and pressing his forehead to the nape of his neck.

An earthly scent fills his nose as the ends of Kenny's hair brush against his cheeks. There's a calming that spreads through Craig from it and he closes his eyes. A warmth, that he only now notices from the tentacles wrapped around him and Kenny's neck, where his head and hands rested by. One of his fingers brushes lightly against Kenny's neck, the texture of his skin is similar to his own, but felt as if it were much denser and harder. Craig then presses the finger harder to it and opens his eyes.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

_...You're wondering why I'm helping you?_

"Yeah," Craig mumbles.

He didn't care that his question was read from his mind again. A brief pause follows before he gets his response.

_Maybe I'm what you'd call... sentimental._

"Sentimental?"

_I was curious about humans when I first ended up in your world. And you were the very first human I ever interacted with. And the first being to ever show me kindness, and give me a name. At first I wasn't sure how to respond to you, if you were a threat or not, but I was curious. So I didn't do any harm and observed. And when I met you, my curiosity grew even more. Our meeting was short, but the impact it left on me, was long lasting. So in that regard, I am quite sentimental about you._

"Oh..."

Craig's hand flattens and the tips of his fingers rest on Kenny's neck. Part of him couldn't help but feel some guilt at forgetting about him. Especially since he was helping him try to get back home as well.

_Do not feel bad. You were very young, it's to be expected in most cases._

"Yeah, but—"

_Do not worry about it. It's better to forget, sometimes..._

Despite that though, Craig can't help but still feel bad about it.

_Really Craig, it is alright._

There's something almost soft in those words that Craig can't tell if it makes him feel better, or feel worse. He tries to steer his thoughts to something else, knowing that Kenny could read his current more depressing ones.

The lights catch the corners of his vision and he tilts his head to the side and watches them pass by in a blur.

"...This place could be so pretty. If it wasn't for, you know, the monsters trying to kill me and stuff," Craig says absentmindedly. He continues to watch the lights in a half daze, before another thought comes to mind. "How do the monsters come to be into this world? Are they born? Hatched? Or what?"

_Yes, to both. Certain species of monsters can be hatched from eggs, either alone, or in groups. Some of which fight their siblings as soon as they hatch. Others are born from wombs, usually alone, but those born in packs, travel and hunt in them._

"So monsters can work together?"

_In a sense, yes. The ones in packs tend to have kinetic abilities that sync all of their thoughts in to one._

"So like a hive mind sort of?"

_Yes._

"And... what about you?" Craig asks hesitantly, "How were you born, or hatched?"

_I was, both, you could say._

"Both? How?"

_I was created from a womb, but that womb did not belong to a monster. The womb belonged to the ground itself. And when I awoke, the bedrock that surrounded me shifted and moved, and the walls of the womb thinned and broke as my claws pierced its walls and the first breath of air, filled me._

"So you were in a womb from the ground, but hatched out of it like an egg?" Craig asks, trying his best to wrap his mind around it.

_Put simply, yes._

"Oh, okay... Wait—how did you survive from such a small, vulnerable state?"

_Monsters are born with the instincts to kill, I knew how to defend myself. Although the first stage was difficult._

"First stage?"

_When we met for the first time, I was in my second stage. The first was much smaller than that._

"Oh."

Craig doesn't question about Kenny's birth and how strange his birth seemed, and takes it as a monster thing.

_No, you're correct. My birth would be considered highly unusual, even in this world. Not even I truly know of the species I am._

"Really?" Craig asks surprised. "Huh, well, now I think I understand why you weren't sure if whether or not I was a threat before," he murmurs, "did you know that other worlds existed?"

_At the time, no. But the tears did make me curious, so I went through one and ended up in your world. Similar to how you ended up in mine right away. Although when I came back, I went through the space between and..._

"And?"

_If we're lucky, you'll go right back home, or only have to pass through the space between for a short period of time._

Craig wants to ask him what he means, but Kenny suddenly stops moving, causing him to ask something else instead.

"What's wrong?"

_There's one nearby._

Craig falls silent as Kenny's gaze scans the surroundings. He does his best to remain calm, recalling how Kenny told him they could smell fear.

There's a snap of something breaking somewhere and Craig's grip tightens around Kenny. Kenny stays in place for a long quiet moment, his tentacles slowly wrapping around Craig, getting ready to move. One of them coils down and around Craig's inner thigh, and he tries not to pay the pressure any mind and focus on his surroundings, like Kenny.

Craig can feel Kenny tense right before taking a step. The moment he does, the loud roar of something echoes out and a figure sprints towards them. One of Kenny's tentacles darts out just as the figure leaps at them, it wraps around what appears to be a leg and holds it up. The monster has a mix of bald patches and fur, its head is a combination of what looks like a boar and tiger with sharp long fangs and one black eye resting in the center of the head. Kenny whips the thing away into a tree and it squeals.

_This isn't good._

"What? Why?"

_Remember how I mentioned some travel in packs? Well, this is one of them._

The monster gets back up and leaps at Kenny. Its whipped away again, with a bone crushing crack and a high pitched squeal that sends a chill through Craig. The moment it hits the ground again, several roars erupt from their surroundings.

_Hold on, this will get unpleasant._

With that, Kenny runs, much faster than before. The nearby trees and bushes rustle and crack in a flurry of blurred motion as Kenny quickly skims pass them. A shadow jumps out and one of the tentacles lashes out and swats it away. A loud crash is heard, before another array of roars go out. Kenny pushes off with a strong leap forward, sending them both traveling through the air a great some feet. The roars grow and merge with distant sounds of other wild calls.

_To much attention is being drawn to us._

There's a crash of some sort nearby and trees falling into one another, landing on the ground, something screeches as Kenny take another long leap. As soon as he lands, he jumps again, dodging a strike of something long, a snake monster or other. Kenny's tentacle grabs onto a vine and swings him forward up into the air. He lets go with a flip and grabs another vine with a tentacle. The momentum is enough for him to swing above the trees branches as he lets go. Craig's eyes widen when they go over at the sheer vastness of lights, spreading out like a gleaming ocean beneath them.

_Over there. That cave. Can you see it?_

Craig scans the luminescent trees for what he means, and his eyes land on a mountain of some sort, protruding from the ground. There are various sizes of glowing blue crystals scattered about it here and there as he looks it over. His eyes eventually fall onto an opening, a huge mouth of a cave glowing with the same blue light.

"Yeah, I see it!" Craig replies.

_That's where we're headed. The tear is in there._

Gravity shifts as they fall back down and below the trees again. There's a quick lash of a tentacle and the squeal of one of the tiger boar monsters, as Kenny whips it away. Then their on the move again. Kenny jumps, dodges, attacks and skims pass the steadily growing rate of monsters as they near the cave. The distance from where they are to the cave doesn't take long for them to reach with Kenny's speed. As they near it, the opening is illuminated by the same blue crystals embedded along its walls.

"Won't there be a lot of monsters around the entrance?" Craig asks concerned.

_Perhaps, but there are other openings leading in to the mountain._

That doesn't put Craig's mind at ease and he worries for the worst, but luckily as they reach the opening, no monsters are around it. And Craig's gaze drift's upwards at the substantial size of it.

"This... is much bigger than it looks like from the outside."

_That's because this cave is connected to an underground labyrinth of tunnels and caverns all intertwining with one another._

"And the tear's buried in here somewhere?"

_Yes._

"Fun." Craig monotones.

As Kenny steps inside, a scent fills Craig's nose, something of dampness and mustiness. The distant roars and screeches behind them, cause Kenny to go back into a sprint again and not slow until the sounds are long gone and lost in the twists and turns of the tunnels.

"This place is huge..." Craig says in awe.

_These tunnels were dug by a giant monster a long time ago, before it met its end. Then the tunnels were taken over by another massive monster, before it disappeared through the tear one day and never returned. It used to eat smaller monsters that entered the labyrinth of tunnels, but since its disappearance, the smaller ones now freely roam here._

"I hope that means it didn't end up in my world."

_It could have ended up anywhere after entering in to the space between._

The thought of a big monster roaming about in his world possibly, unsettles Craig's mind, he really hoped that wasn't the case. Kenny comes to a stop a short while later when reaching a branch in the path.

"What's wrong?"

_While I know that the tear is in here, paths leading to it can be tricky to deal with when there's so many of them._

Kenny stays in place for a few more seconds, before choosing one. Just as he goes to take a step down the path, he jumps quickly. Craig is confused by the action at first, until spotting something like that of spike-like needles sticking out of the ground. No, not out of, stuck in, he notes, recalling how they weren't there before.

When Kenny lands, he faces the way they came.

_I didn't notice._

Notice what? Craig thinks, instead of saying.

_That we were being followed in all the commotion during the jungle rush by one of, them._

Them? Craig wonders.

_Most monsters are instinctual, but there are some, others, that have form of intelligence._

There's a strange sound, a cackle of some sort as Craig scans the area for its source. He doesn't spot it at first, the thing hunching behind a crystal on the ceiling, but when he does, the overwhelming sense of apprehensiveness passes through him.

"How strange, a human."

It's a voice, a voice that does not belong to either Craig nor Kenny.

"Why is that here?"

The voice unsettles Craig and so does the monster as it stands from its spot behind the crystal. The head is like a ram, its mouth like that of a carnivore, a snout and sharp black fangs. It stands up onto its hind legs, upright like he or Kenny, but its body is covered in full dark fur. It pushes off the ceiling with its hoofed feet and lands up right a few meters away from them. Its red ram eyes studying them with their white pupils.

"It smells tasty." the monster appears to grin.

Craig's grip tightens on Kenny, there was something so unnerving about the monster. Similar to when he first saw Kenny, but filled with blood lust instead.

"I want it, even if you're in the way." A long tail appears from behind the monster and spikes pop out of its end. "It want to taste it!"

The monster flicks its tail and Kenny dodges, once more having them hit the ground instead. It's quickly followed by another wave of spikes that nearly hits them as Kenny dodges once again. The monster then rushes at them on all fours and swats its tail when it nears. The tail almost hits Craig in the head as it reaches around Kenny to him. But a tentacle stops the impact, grabs the tail and pulls on it, lifting the monster into the air and whips it away.

The monster lands on the side of the cave, on its feet and pushes off the wall back towards them. Kenny lashes a tentacle, but the monster dodges it with its speed and jumps around, trying to get behind Kenny. Another tentacle lashes towards it again and the monster jumps back out of the way. It runs at him again and just as Kenny's two free tentacles go to attack, the thing jumps up and over Kenny with a flip and lands on his back, its head now next to Craig's and it opens its mouth with that eerie grin again.

"Smells delicious." it says.

Craig's eyes widen as the mouth opens larger than his head and readies to devour him. Kenny's tentacles go to grab the monster, but it jumps away. However, its tail wraps around Craig's throat and it starts to pull. Craig gags at the sudden pressure around his neck and Kenny instantly releases him from his back. The moment he does, Craig is quickly pulled behind the monster and held in the air.

"I knew it," the monster says, "you're trying to keep this human alive. But why?"

"Ken...ny," Craig gasps out, clawing at his neck.

"Kenny?" the monster repeats with a tilt of the head, before a laugh is let out. "A name? I see, so that's why. And here I thought you were the one to be feared. But you'd rather keep such food alive, because it gave you something as useless as a name."

"Ken—"

Craig is cut off by the tightening of the tail. The monster gives a cackle before turning and heading off down one of the paths.

All Craig sees is a blur of light and rock before his vision starts to dim from the pressure of his body straining his neck as he's carried along. Craig's vision is near black before he's tossed roughly onto the ground. His vision starts to clear just as a row of sharp teeth come into focus. He's able to make sense of what is happening, just in time to roll to the side as they come rushing at him. They hit the ground and Craig rolls onto his knees and forearms. His eyes meet the monster's for what feels like an eternity, before its tail twitches and Craig quickly gets to his feet to run.

He doesn't even make it a step, before a sharp pain spreads across his arm and leg. He grabs at his arm and falls to his knees, letting out a cry in agony. There's something sharp in it, a spike, and they spread a hot burning pain through his arm and leg. He falls to his side and his eyes catch the monster walking closer to him.

It grins.

"No where to run." its tail raises again and dread fills Craig. "You're fear, I can almost taste it." its jaw opens and saliva pools and drips over its mouth. "It will taste good with that blood of yours."

Craig tries to stand again, but the spike in his leg prevents him from it, tearing into his muscle. A fleeting thought enters his mind, the only thing he can think of to get him out of this situation alive. Kenny.

"Time to feast!"

Its tail goes to strike, but a loud smack is heard as a dark tentacle hits the monster from behind and sends it flying up in the air over pass Craig. The figure revealed to be standing behind the monster, is one of a welcome recognizability. A small smile can't help but tug at Craig's lips in relief at seeing Kenny's form.

Kenny's gaze falls on Craig for a moment, before flicking back up to the monster as it stands.

"I didn't think you'd catch up so fast, before I had the chance to feast." the monster hisses.

It rushes at him and Kenny rushes back at it in return. They clash, the sounds of hisses, snarls, whips, violent thuds and lashes mix in the echo of the long tunnels. The monster's tail aims at Kenny's face, but is stopped, not by one of his tentacle, but by his hand. His grip tightens and pulls the tail forward and brings his other hand, in a quick movement, to the monster's chest. His claws dig into it, and the monster lets out a screech as one of Kenny's tentacles wraps around its neck. The monster starts to claw at it, and Kenny pulls at the tail in his hand more, while another tentacle wraps around on a lower part of the tail and starts to pull on it in the other direction.

The monster, in a move of desperation, lifts its legs up and kicks its feet into Kenny's chest. It's hard enough to break away from Kenny's grip and cause the tentacles around the neck and tail to let go, but not enough for the other hand on the tail to. Kenny's grip tightens, and in one swift motion he tears the tail off. There's a high piercing screech, covering the vague sound of flesh and bone being torn apart, as the monster lands on all fours and Kenny holds up its now dismembered appendage. The monster lets out a snarl as Kenny tosses the tail away. It looks between Kenny and Craig a few times, before keeping it on Kenny.

"Fine... you can have it." the monster says, before it backs away.

Kenny keeps watch on it, until it takes off into a slow run and down another tunnel path. Once its gone, Kenny turns his attention back to Craig. He walks over to him and Craig tries to stand, but only makes it half way up, before nearly falling again. This time though, one of Kenny's tentacles wraps around the back of his waist, and holds him up right.

"Thanks," Craig says.

_I'm sorry. I couldn't keep you uninjured._

"What are you talking about? You saved me from nearly getting eaten and killed." Craig says, then adds, "Multiple times."

_Your thoughts though, you were so terrified._

"I was at first..." Craig mumbles and pushes off of the tentacle. He ends up leaning too far forward and landing up against Kenny's chest. The words, 'until you came along', finish the sentence in his head.

Craig's cheek warms against Kenny's chest, and two tentacles move to the spikes lodged in his arm and leg, and remove them. The ends of them open up then and press to the wounds, causing him to flinch from it at first.

_You're bleeding. This isn't good. The scent will draw any monsters nearby straight to us._

The tentacle on Craig's arm manages to slip under his jacket collar and press to the wound on his bare skin. The bizarre sensation of the small feelers on his skin, makes him shudder.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

_Trying to make the bleeding stop, but I don't think it will help much. It's probably best for us to keep moving._

Kenny removes his tentacles and wraps them around Craig, lifts him up and places him on his back. Craig's eyes close as he rests against Kenny's back again, but the peacefulness doesn't last long, as several screeches, howls and shrieks echo down the tunnel walls.

_They must have picked up on the scent of blood. I'll try to hurry._

Once Craig is held like how he was before, Kenny starts off down the tunnels again.

His steps echo,mix and lose themselves to the wild calls of the monsters around them. Tunnel after tunnel, turn after turn, Kenny runs. He runs until eventually reaching a giant cavern area. It was unlike the others though, as it was dark. Everything but the connecting tunnels to it and the center of it was dark. For there in the center lie a thin light suspended in the air.

"The te—"

A tentacle covers Craig's mouth. He wonders as to why and what's wrong because of it.

_This darkness isn't natural._

Craig wonders what he means.

_Look at the ceiling._

Kenny points a finger to it and Craig's gaze follows it. At first he doesn't know what he's talking about, but as he pays closer attention to it, the darkness seems off, almost fuzzy, as if it were not consistent. As Craig realizes what it is, Kenny tenses, getting ready to run.

_Hang on tight._

With that, Kenny runs, probably faster than Craig has ever seen thus far. The screeches and such from the tunnels around them, reverberates in the cavern as they make it halfway through it.

A thousand small white orbs flicker to life in the darkness, eyes, all white eyes rapidly appear across the ceiling. And then their falling, falling with the sounds of numerous chirping, as trickles of light start to glimmer through the dark. First in small streaks, then in rays as the dark continues to fall. Horror hits Craig, when he realizes that hundreds of small spider like monsters were now raining down towards them.

Craig looks back as a loud hiss echoes in the cavern, and the monsters drawn to his scent all enter into the open space. Sheer chaos ensues as they draw near the tear. Kenny swats away a few of the spider monsters that almost land on them, before making a long leap to the tear, filling the remaining distance.

Similar to before, when Craig went through, a bright light fills his eyes and colors come and go all at once, until a light so bright causes him to shut his eyes again. But this time when they open, any trace of color is gone, and replaced by monochromatic grays and blacks.

"Where..." Craig trails off.

He looks around in awe at the strange terrain of this place, and at the lack of color everything has, except for he and Kenny.

_We're in the space between._

"Wow..."

The land is disjointed in places and scattered about. Some parts of land floated well into the sky, while others had massive cracks through them. There was also the black trees, bushes and strange globs of thread connecting the land masses and plant life, along with other various obscured things. The sky is filled with thousands and thousands of stars, and Craig can't help but feel amazement at it.

_Those are not stars, they are tears._

"Wait—you mean those are all tears connecting to other worlds?!" Craig says in utter shock.

_Yes._

"Holy shit," Craig says in disbelief. "No wonder you could spend the rest of your days traveling lost in here."

Craig's attention is brought back as shrieks from behind them emerge. One by one, in rapid succession, the monsters come out of the tear.

"There's so many!" Craig exclaims.

_I had hoped they would stall by fighting each other, but it seems they are determined to come after us instead._

Craig's grip tightens on Kenny's shoulders from the amount of them.

_I'll get you back home. I won't let anymore harm come to you._

"I know... trust you." Craig says and turns his head back around, pressing his forehead to Kenny's neck.

He gives an internal thanks, and prays to wake from this nightmare soon. There's a rub against his back, a soothing motion from one of the tentacles, he doesn't say anything but appreciates it.

It feels like forever before Kenny comes close to reaching the other tear.

_We're almost there._

Craig looks over his shoulder and spots it.

"That one leads to my world?" Craig asks.

_Yes, it will take you home._

Relief washes over Craig for a split second, until he hears the continuous screeches and roars behind them. And he quickly starts to worry about the monsters following them through it and into his world.

Kenny comes to a stop then, and let's go of Craig.

_The tear is within running distance. Go._

"You're not coming?" Craig asks confused.

_I'm going to take care of them._

Kenny turns around and faces the monster swarm.

"Take care of them? How? There's one of you and hundreds of them!"

_I will take care of it. Do not worry._

"Kenny."

_I said I would get you home and I will._

"But—"

_I will be okay._

"Wait!" Craig exclaims, as Kenny takes a step forward.

He rushes around in front of him to stop him, paying no mind to the pain in his leg.

_Craig, I understand your worry, but I'll be okay._

Kenny at first goes to reach a hand up to Craig's face, but stops, almost as if he's afraid to touch him with it. Instead a tentacle reaches up and the end of it lightly caresses his cheek.

_You trust me don't you?_

Craig nods and Kenny moves the tentacle away.

_Then go._

The line in the center of his forehead opens, and a blue eye is revealed to be behind it. Its shape is the same as the other two on his face, but the way it looked reminded Craig more of a dragon eye. The eye starts to glow and small lines of purple in it following the iris appear. An orb of blue light of some sort appears above the center of his two horns and the other two eyes start to glow brightly as well. A faint white aura surrounds him as he starts to rise up into the air. And a magenta halo appears around the blue light, which now looked closer to a star if it were in the distance. His tentacles spread into straight lines, as another halo slowly appears over the first. The scene is surreal to that of a painting. With the halos around Kenny's head, his tentacles extended outwards like wings and him floating in the sky.

_I can see now... The horrors you've seen, they'll haunt you._

"What?" Craig says confused.

_I'll... remove them._

Kenny's arms raise and cross over his chest.

"W-wait, what do you mean you'll remove them?"

_Do not fear, there will be no pain. Only your memories of here will be gone._

"Of here—" a tinge of panic edges in to Craig at that, "Kenny—wait!"

Craig reaches up to Kenny as the aura around his body grows stronger. But he's too far out of reach by this point. Kenny's arms start to open and a small ball of light starts to form. Panic grows in Craig. Forget? He had indeed been thinking of wanting to forget about and erase the awful things he had seen all throughout the night. But he didn't want to forget about Kenny, not again. Not after finally remembering him after all this time, or how he had helped him. He wanted to understand him more, for him to come with him to his world. He didn't want to leave him to his fate here.

_I cannot stay with you in your world, even if I went with you. I do not belong in it, nor can I exist in it without being an anomaly in it._

"But you were in it before! And if you can read my thoughts, than you know I don't want my memories gone!" Craig exclaims.

_For a short time I was in it, yes. But the universe has a way of balancing itself out. And if I do not remove those memories, the horrors of this place will not haunt only your dreams, but your waking life as well, for a long time throughout your lifetime. I can see it. And also... it is better this way._

"Better?" Craig repeats, trying to grasp what his words meant, and what lay hidden behind them.

_I'm glad to have met you Craig. Even if we're not to be, somewhere out there we are. Somewhere out there, our paths have crossed many times._

The light in his arms has grown quite big by now as he raises it up above his head.

_But who knows... maybe our paths will cross again one day. If fate allows it somehow._

The light then shrinks and for a moment, there is dead silence, before the halos expand and a sudden flash appears into existence in a blinding light, and ear piercing screech echoes out.

"Kenny!" Craig exclaims.

The shockwave nearly sends him flying from its sheer force.

_I'm sorry... Craig._

Everything is bathed in white, and the last sound Craig hears is a deafening boom, before everything shifts and changes around him.

Images from when he's a kid in his room flood his mind. Kenny's there, they're small again. Craig falls asleep smiling with Kenny next to him, and Kenny has an arm and tentacles wrapped around him. Next he awakens to Kenny by his window, about to leave. Craig stops him, asking where he's going. Kenny looks back at him and raises a hand, where a small light appears on the tip of his finger. Craig looks at it curious, before it's pressed to his forehead. Craig's eyes close, and Kenny catches him as he falls and puts him back in bed with his tentacles and arms. He watches Craig for a few seconds and runs a hand across his forehead. Kenny's gaze lands on the nightstand, where the paper with his name on it is. He walks over to it, picks it up and folds it a few times, before walking to Craig's closet. He opens it and stands on something so his tentacles can reach over the top shelf in it. Images start to blur as he moves something around in it. When he closes it, the paper is no longer with him. Then he's by the window again, giving one last glance to Craig before he jumps out of it, and everything fades to white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a couple more images I drew for this AU. 
> 
> And below are a few more artworks drawn by my friend [KuroXan!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroXan)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter!

A flash of images all at once pass through Craig's mind. Then there's nothing, nothing but empty light. A substance like black ink spills in from somewhere, then everywhere, and the space is quickly filled with darkness, and he's drowning, suffocating, in it. He struggles for air, to hang onto what he's losing, reaching out for it with all he has. But he tires and starts to numb. His eyes grow heavy and they start to droop no matter how hard he tries to keep them open, or tell himself not to close them.

A silence.

A beat.

A gasp.

A sudden rush of light fills Craig's eyes as they open and he sits up. He coughs a few times and looks around once he's settled down. Confusion crosses his face as he looks at the woods he found himself in.

"Why am I here? Wasn't I..." Craig thinks aloud.

He tries to recollect his thoughts, but everything is hazy. He recalls heading back from the washroom to meet back up with Clyde, but after that, nothing, except for waking up.

Rays of light from the sun shine through the trees. Something about where they're coming from doesn't seem right to him for the time of day and he takes out his phone to check the time. When he finds it dead, his confusion only grows more. He puts his phone away and goes to stand.

He winces as a sharp sting passes through his leg and he examines it. Surprise crosses his face when he spots blood on the side of it. He goes to touch it with the arm on the same side, and winces again. When he spots more blood on his jacket, he takes it out of its sleeve and examines it as well. There's a small hole with blood clotted over it, and he can't help but let out a 'What the fuck?' because of it.

He manages to get up after a bit, aching, once he's gathered his bearings more. He comes to the conclusion that he must have fallen over something and injured himself, before passing out unconscious from it. It's what he tells himself, and what he tells his mom and friends when they bombard him with questions on what happened and where he had been all night.

Everyone is relieved though that he's alright, for the most part. Clyde goes on about how their other friends, Token, Tweek and Jimmy, were so late to arrive, and how much time he had wasted waiting, that he went on ahead because he wanted that candy. He tells Craig that he sent him a text saying pretty much the same thing, and was annoyed by how he didn't come back and felt like he ditched him. But after hearing what happened to him, he gives a sympathetic look and apologizes. But Craig shrugs him off, telling him that his costume wasn't good anyways. Especially since he lost the 'zombie' factor of his outfit.

Pretty soon, that Halloween night becomes a thing of the past for Craig and he forgets about it as things start to return to normal life again in the passing days. Just like any other day.

Although, there's this recurring dream he's been having lately, of a boy in orange, with blond hair and violet eyes...

**_END…?_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope anyone who read this, enjoyed this short story!! <33 (huehuehue) 
> 
> Below are some more artworks, by my lovely friends. <3 
> 
> All of them are artworks inspired by this AU, and are also based around this alt universe in which Kenny lives with Craig, which they like to call 'My Monster and Me', lol. Hope you guys enjoy them, as much as I did. xD 
> 
> And thanks again to them, for such amazing artworks! Be sure to check them out guys! <3
> 
> Twitter:[yuu-draws](https://twitter.com/yuudraws)
> 
> Instagram:[yuu-draws](https://www.instagram.com/yuu_draws_/)
> 
> AO3:[KuroXan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroXan)
> 
> (The ones below are for the main AU lol.) 


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